Anxiety. We all experience it at varying times. How much more over the past 15-16 months?!
In this brief video below, I take a moment to talk through anxiety and a simple practice that can help us navigate it.
Continue readingAuthor Archives: Scott
The Wisdom of Trauma
Trauma — physical, emotional, psychological — has come on our radar more and more in recent days. We talk about mental health, and we should. But mental health very rarely can be discussed without also working through trauma.
Take a moment and check out this new documentary film entitled The Wisdom of Trauma.
Continue readingLove of Self
Yesterday our youngest was telling my wife & I that he loved us.
“I love you mommy. I love you daddy. I also love Shadow [our puppy].”
He then said something that caught my attention even more.
“I love me, too.” [speaking of himself]
Continue readingSpiritual Rhythms for the Enneagram
The Enneagram is the personality fad of today. It’s everywhere, and especially within Christian circles. Some love it; some roll their eyes at it; and some still may not know what it is.
I have been personally studying the Enneagram for the past three and a half years and believe it to be a unique personality typing system. Of course, there are many other personal and professional typing methods available—Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, StrengthsFinder, and DiSC profile, to name a few. Still, I’ve not yet found a tool as helpful in understanding not just the what or how of one’s personality, but also the why. It gets into the nitty-gritty of the motivation behind why we live and view life the way we do. This creates a helpful framework of understanding self, as well as understanding others. I’ve found it so unique that I have made it part of the curriculum in a leadership class I teach.
One book that I have recently revisited is Spiritual Rhythms for the Enneagram, by the Calhoun’s and Loughrige’s. Alongside Chris Heuertz’s The Sacred Enneagram, it is one of my favorite’s thus far. I particularly enjoy the emphasis of utilizing the Enneagram for spiritual formation. Not that the Enneagram is some intrinsically Christian tool. But it is a tool nonetheless, one that I believe can help with understanding self – how one was created, what pains (and trauma) we are dealing with, all in order to connect with our loving Creator and find wholeness.
Continue readingWomen Theologians on Our Shelves
This week we had our PhD Symposium for the School of Divinity at the University of Aberdeen. My particular area is Practical Theology.
As many things still remain, this was virtual. So I was grateful to be able to easily attend.
In the final session, we had a Q & A panel with the faculty. One question was what are they currently reading and why it is important to them. One member, Dr. Katie Cross, who is a prominent voice in feminist theology today, shared some insights about reading women in theology. From that, she also shared a post by Maggie Dawn, who is herself a professor of theology at St Mary’s College, Durham University. This post lists a plethora of resources on women writers in theology. These women do not just write about women’s issues. They speak into all things theological. And that’s how it is supposed to be!
Interestingly, this is how Maggie Dawn introduces her own post:
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